beck , clapton, howe, hendrix and santana are all better than jimmy, yet when i look at all the top ten lists, people always seem to rank him higher than most of these guitarists. When i listen to zepplin, his leads do not impress me, and pale in comparison to guitarists like beck and howe,
dahszil
I don't believe in this greatest of this or that area of life. However there are guitarists in rock who have left an impression. IMHO, the rock guitarists in that short period(circa 1967 to circa 1974) that was the rock era(not to be confused with rock and roll or pop)were the greatest because they invented and took from other genre sources(such as american black blues, Asian Indian and even some classical music techniques)to make the rock guitar sound. I think Hendrix, Page, Clapton(with cream and learned much from jack bruce so says clapton)rory gallagher, etc have really been some of the most influential. actually the distortion and "acid" guitar style started in haight ashbury in san fransico was one of the first places where the rock sound started. Jerry Garcia of the the Grateful Dead played much more aggressively in the mid 60's. And he became a great melodic and lyrical guitarist. the beatles sgt peppers concept album sort of was the start of rock fusion with other kinds of music. and the person most responsible for that was beatles producer george martin. when retro rock started in the late 1980's there were many technical guitarists like Slash, but i would hardly call him innovative. He can play anything and play fast but that is not genius nor historical and influential. oh yeah, there was this guy Phil Keaggy who played for a band called Glass Harp who was an amazing guitarist around 1970 but became obscure after joining the jesus freak movement. whether he did anything innovative, i don't know. I personally do not like Ted Nugent but he was one of those influential guitarists in the classic rock era.
DinnerInTheMorning
Jimmy Page is not a very good technical player, at least nowdays. In his prime, his guitar skills were just as good as his reputation. The studio albums are a bad representation of his peak acheivements, look for live shows in the 70s.
That being said, he does not compare technically to many other guitar greats such as Alex Lifeson, Ritchie Blackmore, Shawn Lane, John Maclangin, Wes Montomegery or Chuck Schuldiner. However, he is a riff factory much like Ritchie Blackmore.
Led Zeppelin riffs are still some of the best conceived in the 70s bluesy hard rock period. Not many hard rock songs (because most of it is boring) have that timeless feel that Zeppelin has achieved.
I'm in Doubt
If it is an open poll, Jimmy Page would be rated higher because Led Zeppelin is a very popular band and people out of the guitar world won't recognize many others. But he kinda deserves to be "one of the best".
?
Because he is The Greatest Guitarist In The History Of Music! ;)
TNA James
Because he is like a pair of Air Jordans. He is simply a replica of something that was greater than what he could ever be. More replicas were created after him. Everyone copies each other rather than develop their own style. The man is so overrated.